Neighborhood

Lenox Hill office space is located in an upscale sub-neighborhood on the south side of Manhattan’s Upper East Side (UES) neighborhood near Central Park. Sometimes, people refer to Lenox Hill as the “lower Upper East Side,” and some call it the “gateway to the Upper East Side.” Lenox Hill exudes the character traits of both the Upper East Side and Midtown and benefits from its inclusion of Lenox Hill Hospital, Hunter College and Rockefeller University.

Leasing Lenox Hill office space puts businesses in good company. Notable businesses renting office space in or near Lenox Hill include Annie and Company Needlepoint, California Closets, French Bull, Dineen architecture + design, as well as the New York offices of National Geographic.

What our brokers say about Lenox Hill

Lenox Hill comprises the UES area between East 59th Street and East 77th Street as well as between Fifth Avenue and 3rd Avenue. Most of Lenox Hill lies within the Upper East Side Historic District, and many of its buildings are pre-war landmarks. This peaceful neighborhood has brownstone-lined streets and tends to attract college students and young professionals—though it does have some older residents. “Though [Lenox Hill] has no shortage of wealthy residents, it is also home to older people who live on fixed incomes in rent-regulated apartments,” Warren B. Scharf, executive director of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, notes. The neighborhood is home to an interesting mix of stately buildings, unique boutiques, and cultural institutions—like the Asian Society Museum and the Park Avenue Armory.

Lenox Hill has an impressive medical community; it houses Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, and the Lenox Hill Hospital. Lenox Hill Hospital, part of Northwell Health, is a 450-bed, acute care hospital that is known in particular for excellence in treating cardiovascular disease and neurosurgery. Many Lenox Hill Hospital patients come from Manhattan, though over half come from surrounding bureaus and around the world for treatment.

Northwell Health plans to rebuild Lenox Hill Hospital’s 160-year-old building in a $2.5 billion undertaking that will involve updating surgical suites, expanding the emergency department, and more. The eight-year project will increase Lenox Hill Hospital’s real estate footprint from 780,000 square feet to 1.3 million square feet, including the addition of a 30-story tower. Besides increasing the quality of patient care, developers hope the project will help ameliorate traffic congestion that often plagues the hospital campus. “We want to continue to provide the best medical care in New York City in a futuristic hospital while maintaining Lenox Hill’s legacy in the community,” said Michael Dowling, president and chief executive officer of Northwell Health. Northwell Health is the largest private employer and health care provider in the state of New York.

Businesses leasing Lenox Hill office space will benefit from the neighborhood’s prime location within Midtown Manhattan, the largest central business district in the world. Midtown is a hub for tourism, contains some of the most famous buildings in NYC, and houses the headquarters for many well-known companies, like The New York Times Company, Calvin Klein, Barnes & Noble, and Foot Locker. With the United Nations less than a 30-minute commute away from a majority of Lenox Hill, diplomatic missions and consulates often occupy the former mansions of the neighborhood, including those of Austria, France, Greece, Italy, India, and Pakistan. Companies with global and international connections might find that office space in Lenox Hill fits their needs.

Lenox Hill isn’t all business, medical innovation, and incredible architecture. The New York Times calls it a “neighborhood of amenities,” and it has something for everyone. Whether you’re looking for delicious food, green spaces to explore, or shopping opportunities, Lenox Hill has it all. TripAdvisor recommends these restaurants in Lenox Hill: Ravagh Persian Grill, Candle Cafe, Tony’s Di Napoli, Lusardi’s Restaurant, and Ritz Diner. The best nearby place to get some exercise is Central Park, which spans 843 acres. Go shopping on the Upper East Side’s Park Avenue or Madison Avenue.

Lenox Hill also benefits from its proximity to Central Park, which remains one of the city’s most iconic locations, right along with Times Square and the Empire State Building. One, the park’s insane number of daily visitors ensures local businesses will have access to an enormous talent pool and a group of potential clients. Two, employees working in Lenox Hill will always have quick access to walking trails and greenery in Central Park when they need a break from the office for a walk or a lunch break. Three, Central Park has a lot of other amenities, including countless restaurants, museums, nature sanctuaries, historic landmarks, theaters, athletic areas, and even a zoo.

Lenox Hill commercial space for lease | By the numbers

Office Space for Lease

Price per square foot

Class A

$82.25

Overall Average

$73.25

Lease data & trends

Lenox Hill is part of the Midtown Manhattan commercial real estate market. Overall, Midtown Manhattan currently houses slightly more than 288 million square feet of office space, which is more than half of New York City’s total office space inventory. Developers were working on adding just more than 12 million more square feet of office space to Midtown as of Q3 2019.

Upper East Side office space costs an average of just over $73.25 per square foot to rent, just below the $76.50 per square foot Midtown average and the $74 per square foot Manhattan average. Class A office space in the Upper East Side costs an average of just under $82.25 per square foot to lease. Currently, the neighborhood houses just over 21 million square feet of office space, about 9.5 percent of which is vacant.

In Q3, Midtown Manhattan Class A asking rents increased to $93.87 per square foot, approaching the highest they’ve ever been—$95.40 per square foot in Q3 of 2008. One Vanderbilt’s addition to the market accounts for most of this pricing increase. Most of the new leases signed in this quarter were at existing rather than under-development properties. Notably, WeWork signed the biggest lease in the quarter: 362,197 square feet at 437 Madison Avenue. In addition, EisnerAmper LLP moved from 750 Third Avenue to 733 Third Avenue, leasing 124,327 square feet. Leasing activity in Q4 is expected to be busy and easily overshadow the leasing activity from Q3. In particular, tech giants are expected to snatch up newly developed properties in Midtown Manhattan, keeping the Class A vacancy rate low.

Getting around: Transportation

WalkScore rates the Upper East Side with walking and transit scores of 99. Yorkville and Lenox Hill are two of the most walkable neighborhoods in Manhattan. Central Park and the East River Esplanade provide pedestrians and bikers with scenic trails to take to work or unwind from the day. CitiBike continues to expand its Upper East Side stations, and bike lanes are located on First Avenue and Second Avenue.

Lenox Hill locals can easily commute to the rest of the Upper East Side, Central Park, and other parts of Midtown Manhattan. Lenox Hill is primarily served by the New York City Subway’s 68th Street—Hunter College station (trains 4 and 6) and the 72nd Street station (trains M, N, Q, and R). Buses stopping in the neighborhood include M1, M2, M3, M4, M15, M66, M72, M98, M101, M102, and M103.

For domestic and international travelers, Midtown Manhattan offices are centrally located between Newark Airport and LaGuardia Airport and within an hour of John F. Kennedy International Airport. The PATH train offers a car-free solution to get to Newark. It’s important to remember that centrally located doesn’t always make for a quick trip—be sure to budget your time accordingly. Midtown typically has a lot of traffic, so getting around by car is not recommended.

History

Like many parts of NYC, Lenox Hill—and most of the Upper East Side—used to be farmland. The first sign of commercialization rolled in on the New York and Harlem Road to 86th Street, a station that eventually turned into the center of Yorkville.

In the 1920s, Midtown Manhattan was reborn. Once a forgotten part of town, investors transformed the neighborhood into a business district, complete with the engineering feat of Grand Central Station. Though Lower Manhattan had previously driven most of the city’s economy, Midtown became a force of its own that rivaled even Wall Street with its business influence.

Affluence has been a defining trait of the Upper East Side for so long that the neighborhood was once known as the Silk Stocking District. Wealthy families enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle with immediate access to both Central Park and the retail shops along Fifth Avenue. Many historically significant families had homes in the Upper East Side, including the Kennedys, Roosevelts, Rockefellers, and Carnegies. While pockets of affordable housing can be found closer to the East River, the Upper East Side has some of the most expensive housing in Manhattan and the rest of the United States.

Lenox Hill got its name from a hill where 70th Street and Park Avenue now exist. The “Lenox” part of the name came from Robert Lenox, a Scottish merchant who used to own land in the area. For a while, the land he owned was called “Lenox Farm.” Among the oldest settlement homes in the nation is Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, which is, of course, in Lenox Hill. The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House recently celebrated its 125th anniversary.

As was aforementioned, Lenox Hill is famous for Lenox Hill Hospital. The hospital’s history is obviously intertwined with the history of the neighborhood itself. Community leaders in the area first began to seriously discuss the need for a hospital in 1857. Lower Manhattan’s German Dispensary met the need for medical services for a while. Eventually, the German Dispensary moved to Park Avenue. In those days, the “ambulance” was a horse-drawn carriage. In 1918, the German Dispensary was renamed Lenox Hill Hospital.

Lenox Hill Hospital might have changed the course of history. Records indicate that in 1931, a car ran over Winston Churchill. A firsthand account of the incident recorded in My New York Misadventure indicates that Churchill was rushed to the Lenox Hill Hospital to get treatment for a serious head wound. In 1957 on the hospital’s 100th anniversary, Churchill wrote, “I well remember the admirable care and attention I received.

Lenox Hill Hospital began earning its place a center for medical innovation around 1933, since in 1907 it established what became the nation’s first physical therapy department, and in 1908, it set up the city’s first tuberculosis division. Later, the first angioplasty treatments in the United States were attempted at Lenox Hill. Lenox Hill Hospital joined Northwell Health in 2010 and has stayed on the leading edge of heart, lung, and vascular care.